American Healthcare: Why It Costs So Much Yet Remains a Beacon of Growth and Development

Selected by the Association of University Programs in Health Administration
for the Bugbee-Falk Book Award

Is the health sector a curse or a blessing? The American health sector now accounts for a fifth of the economy. American healthcare spending per capita far exceeds that of other developed countries. Yet our health, as measured by life expectancy and infant mortality, is poor by comparison with the developed world. Other measures of quality including hospital-acquired infection are too co...